A great theme tune forms the backbone of any classic war movie, but which are the best? Here’s Mark’s selection…

When I was growing up in the 60s, there was a definite nostalgia for the war that stimulated the making of some excellent movies, mostly based on real events in World War II. But through some entirely inexplicable quirk of fate (or the fact that they had big enough budgets), many of them ended up with such evocative theme music. Just hearing some of the music stirs up the emotions.

I bought a few such themes on various movie soundtrack albums, but eventually hit gold with a record put out by Geoff Love and his orchestra called Big War Movie Themes. This has, without exception, some of the best examples of the genre.

I don't really need an excuse to talk about war movies, so which were the most stirring themes?
»

WWII, the Atlantic Ocean. Captain Lehmann-Willenbrock helms a German U-Boat, tasked with striking at Allied supply convoys. During a long and dangerous mission they must seek out their targets, whilst avoiding Allied Destroyers and their deadly depth-charges.

*****

Das Boot started out life as a 150-minute cinema release, then developed into a five-hour mini-series before finding a much more natural and effective resting place as a 310-minute director’s cut, the version we now have here in glorious high definition. One of the many fascinating and insightful extras tells the story of the development of the different versions and how the sound effects, dialogue and soundtrack were all then refined to provide a seamless extended version. And seamless it is, with every element seemingly in its rightful place and no apparent ballast that might have better been discarded.

We open on a drunken party, the assorted officers and rank-and-file in varying stages of inebriation,
»

First off, I have to tell you that this page may load slow. We're making an awful lot of calls to the Amazon Api here, and that's bound to monkey with things. If you have no idea what that means... it's shiny. Please note also that, for the same reason, you may find, depending on traffic, that not all of the Amazon details will load properly. I apologize for that, it's just the nature of the beast, and the fact that the Api wasn't really meant for such things. If you refresh, it will probably fix.

You may have heard me mention this giveaway quite a while ago, and it's taken me a long time to figure out what sort of format to put things in, and I kept added things. Eventually it became too much to really give any kind of run down on the items, so I decided
»

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will unleash the harrowing 1981 epic World War II film, Das Boot, for the first time on Blu-ray on September 5th, for £19.99 Rrp. We have three copies of the Blu-ray to give away to our readers.

Following an extensive 4K restoration from the original negative, the director’s cut of this prized film adds 60 nail-biting minutes to the original version, which was nominated in 1982 for six Academy Awards® including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Effects/Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound. Also included in the two-disc set is almost three hours of all-new Blu-ray exclusive special features, including a retrospective documentary with Director Wolfgang Petersen.

The film follows the lives of a fearless U-Boat captain Capt.-Lt. Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (Jurgen Prochnow, The Da Vinci Code, Air Force One) and his inexperienced crew as they become engulfed in the “Battle of the Atlantic” during World War II. The
»

Look at the careers of most directors and you'll see a pattern developing. This isn't the case with the prolific Takashi Miike.

Miike gained notoriety with the unsettling Audition and the relentlessly explicit Ichi The Killer. Fans of such progressive works must have been baffled when presented with Miike's other works such as the superhero movie Yatterman, musical (albeit one with zombies) The Happiness Of The Katakuris, and children's fantasy The Great Yokai War though. There's no pigeonholing this man, which makes him one of the few directors actually worth following. 13 Assassins, at first, seems quite mainstream. A tale of a legendary swordsman gathering a team of ronin to kill the Shogun's ruthless brother, it appears to be Miike proving that he can direct an accessible piece of work. Characters are expertly introduced and woven into the story in a way that's stylish, but it's hard to see why
»

Here at FanGirlTastic (soon to be Planet Fury), we're nothing if not responsive to our readers' needs and requests. Recently, reader Private J.V. Vasquez expressed interest in a certain upcoming movie, which we had yet to cover. You asked for it, Pvt. Vasquez, so here it is: a look at the soon-to-be-released thriller, Contagion.

As the inquiring Pvt. Vasquez noted in the forums, at first glance Contagion appears to be nothing more than another version of the 1995 potboiler Outbreak. And that's a fair assessment. The two movies have a lot in common. They are both about a deadly, fast-spreading virus. Also, both contain a number of huge stars in small roles, giving each actor a few minutes to pop in, chew up a big hunk of scenery, and exit stage left. But there is one major difference between Outbreak and Contagion — the directors.

Chicago – When one lists the most successful and beloved foreign films ever made, strong consideration must be given to Wolfgang Petersen’s “Das Boot,” a brilliant exercise in controlled claustrophobia that places the viewer in a German submarine as air and sanity becomes in increasingly shorter supply. This timeless film was recently-released in a stellar two-disc set from Sony and it’s a must-own for fans of the hit film.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

You may not know the name Wolfgang Petersen but you almost certainly know his work as films like “In the Line of Fire,” “Air Force One,” and “The Perfect Storm” play in seemingly endless rotation on basic cable. He’s a fantastic director when it comes to how to pace an action film and he arguably did his best work in his breakthrough 1981 epic “Das Boot.” With one of the largest budgets in German history (reportedly just under $20 million,
»

Col. Jack Knowles (Scheider) is a former American hero who earned a strong reputation in Vietnam. He is bitter, has a bit of a drinking problem and has methods which are somewhat reckless. He is sent to the German-Czechoslovakian border by his superiors so that he won’t cause any trouble. However, this doesn’t stop him. On his first day in the area, Knowles bumps heads with Col. Valachev, a Russian soldier with an equally bad temper. As the film progresses,
»

Sony has released director Wolfgang Petersen's masterpiece Das Boot as a magnificent 2 disc Blu-ray special edition. The film's power has only increased over the years. The movie shows the perils of WWII submarine warfare from the viewpoint of a German crew. The special edition is packed with new footage and special edition features. Here is the official press release from Sony:

Normal
0
false
false
false
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Culver City, Calif. (March 29, 2011) –
Today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they will unleash the harrowing
1981 epic World War II film, Das Boot,
for the first time on
Blu-ray on July 5, 2011 for the Slp of $34.95. Newly
remastered for high definition, the director’s cut of this prized
film adds 60 nail-biting minutes to the original version, which was nominated
in 1982 for six Academy Awards® including Best Director, Best
Cinematography, Best Effects/Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound. Also
included in the
»

I remember watching the original Siskel and Ebert broadcast in which the pair reviewed Das Boot. It is a film that has been relentlessly copied, paid homage to and praised, deservedly so. Das Boot, was released in 1981, the year that Reagan took office. Even as that election heralded a return to nationalism run amuck Wolfgang Petersen's film called for sanity by presenting war from a human rather than a simply nationalistic point of view. Following a group of German World War II submariners on a suicide mission the film undercuts the idea of good guys and bad guys by keeping us involved with the characters as well as through the intense action and suspense that later launched Petersen on his Hollywood career. This two
»

The Music Room (Criterion) Satyajit Ray’s 1958 masterpiece looks at the life of a fallen aristocrat as a metaphor for an India that is not only becoming Westernized, but modernized technologically and culturally beyond recognition. When the beloved music room, where he has hosted lavish concerts in the past, starts falling into disrepair as attendance drops steadily, the man realizes his way of life is vanishing. Stunningly shot in black & white, one of Ray’s finest works. Bonuses: Documentary on Ray from 1984 by Shyam Benegal; Interviews with Ray biographer Andrew Robinson and filmmaker Mira Nair; Excerpt from 1981 roundtable discussion between Ray, critic Michael Ciment, director Claude Sautet. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

Beauty And The Beast (Criterion) Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of the classic fairy tale become a beloved classic upon its 1946 release, and hasn’t faded since.
»

This week's DVD and Blu-ray releases are completely bereft of big budgets and big stars, but if you're a fan of genre flicks, you just might find something worth buying. Among the more noteworthy titles hitting stores we have Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins, one of the best reviewed films of the year thus far, along with Jason Eisener's unhinged Hobo with a Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer. Also worth mentioning: Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men, a new three-movie Monty Python box set, Wolfgang Petersen's director's cut of Das Boot on Blu-ray, and the horror documentary Nightmares in Red, White and Blue. TV releases include The Cape: The Complete Series, Eureka: Season 4.0, and the Japanese continuation of the Transformers: The Headmasters animated series. What will you be buying or renting this week? Check out the full list of releases after the jump.
Amazon.com Widgets

The American moviegoing public has never been especially enthusiastic about foreign-language films, but every now and then, a subtitled movie does cross over from the arthouse to the mainstream. The 1981 submarine thriller Das Boot was one of those movies. Written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen—who later transitioned to Hollywood blockbusters like In The Line Of Fire and The Perfect Storm—Das Boot adapts Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s novel about a German submarine crew fighting to survive World War II. In other words, it’s a story about the bad guys, which asks audiences to root for a crew
»

Wake Wood - Is Hammer Films' third film since breaking back onto the scene. From what I've read it's a really good film that straddles the line between classic British occult and modern ghost story. Certainly one to track down considering Hammer's recent track record out of the gate.

13 Assassins - comes from Asian legend Takashi Mikke. This is one of the most highly acclaimed films of the year (review) and is balls-out amazing and quite possibly one of the best Samurai films ever made - not just in terms of staging and action, but in terms of emotional content. Highly recommended, even for those who don't really care to follow Asian cinema.

Hobo with a Shotgun -- is the splatter-iffic, grindhouse Canadian oddball movie that time forgot. From Jason Eisener it's one for those of you always looking for the craziest sh@t going.

Synopsis: Cult director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan’s feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a wartorn future. (Courtesy of MagPictures.com)

Synopsis: Rayne fights against the Nazis in Europe during World War II, encountering Ekart Brand, a Nazi leader whose target is to inject Adolf Hitler with Rayne’s blood in an attempt to transform him into a dhampir and attain immortality. (Courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)

Friendly dragons, enchanted books, and a theme song by Limahl? It can only be The Neverending Story. Louisa takes a fond look back at a fantasy classic...

Of the many messages people tried to impart to kids in the 80s, one was put across in such an extraordinary way that it couldn’t fail to make an impact. More important than learning not to suffocate in abandoned fridges or avoid climbing electricity pylons to collect some kid’s kite, was the lesson of 1984’s The Neverending Story. That message? Do what you dream.

It’s a bit suspect as advice goes. Taken literally, doing what you dream not only seems ill-advised, but would require incredible financial resources. People are bound to feel uncomfortable about all those naked public transport journeys, too. The whole thing just seems impractical.

The message is much easier to swallow, though, when not taken literally. Doing
»

You can keep your Crimson Tide and U-571. this is the sub film we’ve been waiting for in Blu-ray!

Newly remastered for high definition, the director’s cut adds 60 minutes to the original version, which was nominated for six Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Effects/Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound. Also included in the two-disc set is the original theatrical version of the film and almost three hours of all-new Blu-ray exclusive special features, including a retrospective documentary with director Petersen.

Das Boot follows the lives of a fearless U-Boat captain Capt. -Lt. Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (Jurgen Prochnow, Dune) and his inexperienced crew as they become engulfed
»

Sony has remastered both the theatrical and 60-minute longer director's cut for Blu-ray and will include both versions in a two-disc set. In addition, Das Boot on Blu-ray will feature nearly 3 hours of all-new bonus features highlighted by a retrospective documentary with director Wolfgang Petersen.

Das Boot will be presented on Blu-ray in 1080p video and 5.1 DTS-hd Master Audio. The complete suite of bonus features is as follows:

Stephen Root, who can currently be seen in Cedar Rapids, has joined the cast of Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Variety reports he'll play Arthur Koehler, an introverted man and wood specialist who helps controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) piece together the Lindbergh kidnapping case through an examination of the ladder used by the abductor.

Giovanni Ribisi has joined Mark Wahlberg in Ted, the directorial debut from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane. The film is the raunchy tale of a grown man (Wahlberg) dealing with his teddy bear coming to life as the result of a childhood wish. The Variety report also mentions that Mila Kunis is in final negotiations to join the cast.
»

IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.